Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) decided to increase the interest rates on its various monetary policy instruments by 25 basis points, effective Monday, Oct. 1, 2018, a CBJ statement said.

The decision comes in the light of interest rate developments in the regional and international markets and in line with the CBJ's policy aimed at strengthening the monetary and banking stability, the bank's statement explained.

In order to continue to provide an environment conducive to economic activity, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the Bank's Open Market Operations Committee decided to maintain the interest rates of advances granted under the Bank's program to finance and support economic sectors unchanged at 1.75% for projects within the capital, Amman, and 1% for projects in the rest of the governorates, the CBJ announced.

The Bank's Open Market Operations Committee also decided to expand the umbrella of the program to include the sectors of health, transportation, transport companies and vocational and technical training, as well as the other sectors currently covered by the program, which include industry, tourism, agriculture, renewable energy, information technology and engineering consultation.

This decision aims to contribute to the national efforts to train and qualify human cadres, raise the level of competitiveness in the local, foreign labor markets and upgrade quality of health and transport services provided to citizens, which contributes to improving their living standard.

The CBJ has financed 839 projects with a total value of JD565 million of the total amount available for lending worth JD1.1 billion.

These projects contributed to the creation of more than 8400 new jobs in the various governorates of the Kingdom.

The CBJ said it would continue to monitor developments of local and global monetary and economic indicators and take appropriate measures to ensure monetary and financial stability.